All Forum Posts by: Brandon Dean

The fact you have a signed agreement is great! Now the part that sucks is you have to remind them of the agreement. The easiest way to do it is quote the agreement back to them so they know you are reading it. If it was me I would just quote the scope of work in the agreement and let them know it was not completed. I would probably just start with an email. If they don't commit to finishing the work defined within the agreement then they would be in breach of the agreement. That's when you would have to decide how far you wanted to take it.

Did you sign a contract with them? Any chance the extras are for things not originally included? If you don't have anything on paper you may have a hard time. If by chance you still owe them money than they are going to be more responsive and will probably try to work it out.

I would not get to stuck on what it shows for mark up at this point. Every contractor calculates it different. I would make sure you get the other two bids. That will more than likely wash out the issue. I would question the kick back fee, not to the contractor but the designer. They are supposed to have your best interest as the priority. A finders fee is not in your best interest.

I agree with Drew. That area tends to have high cash flow but can be hard to find good tenants in. As with anything if you buy it wright you can make some money with it.

Kenneth, The holding cost is very minimal. Basically since I am purchasing them with Cash the only holding cost is taxes and that would be roughly $150 for the year. The only public utility to the property is power and it has been disconnected and does not really need to be turned back on since I would be selling it as raw land. I do agree it is not much of a profit however the out of pocket expense is not very much either.

Bryan, I am glad you brought up the quitclaim issue. I had not really looked at it that way but after stepping back and looking at it I would agree with you. I would probably be better off offering a warranty deed since that would be the same way I am purchasing it.

The land contract would be my main exit strategy, once again not huge money but hey its money.

At this time I do not have an end buyer and I could see these taking 3 to 6 months to sell so I did not want to try and wholesale them plus they have to have the taxes paid by the end of August or they go to the tax sale. I have two exit strategies, the first is to list the property for sale by owner and sell it with a quitclaim deed. The second strategy is to sell the property Contract for Deed on a fairly short term. These properties are located at Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri, however they are not Lake Front. Most are sold to put campers or mobile homes on for weekend use.

I am currently looking to purchase a few pieces of raw ground and am looking for some insight on how to close on the properties. I am looking to get these prior to a tax sale from an out of state owner and they are just looking to get what they owe on back taxes out of it, around $500.

I am familiar with the area and these lots are worth about $2,500.00, however to turn them fairly quick I would be looking to list them around $1,750.00. Now with that being said these are obviously very small deals however there is money in them. The problem is if I use a conventional title company it eats into the profit enough that they don’t seem like they would be worth the time.

As always the owner claims there are no liens or judgments against the property. My thought was I would have a title company perform a title search to confirm if any liens or judgments are against the property. If they are indeed clear I would purchase the property with a Warranty Deed and not use a Title Company.

The first question I have is would you even mess around with this kind of deal?

The second question is how would you close on the property?

Joshua,

I think I just got lucky on the first one but I will take it! Now here is what I would suggest adding to your list. A Realtor that works with Investors! This is the one thing I feel like I am lacking. As a newbie I went to Zillow and all the other popular Real Estate web sites and found what I thought was “Comps”. After driving around and looking for the houses I was going to show as comps I found that half of them where not listed anymore. As a newbie and without a Realtor I have not idea if they sold or just took them off the market. Great if they sold but for how much? If they just took them off the market I may have an issue.

Also using sites like these to determine actual selling price appears to be an issue. If you look at Zillows that sold it actually calls it a Zestimate. As a newbie I have not idea if that’s what Zillow thinks it sold for or if that’s actually what it sold for. If anyone knows the answer to that it would be greatly appreciated! Long story short if I would have teamed up with an agent first this could have been a lot easier for me.

Also I would give out accurate rehab cost. Most the investors I found want them so you can back up what you think the deal is worth. On the deal I am working on now I actually met two contractors at the house and they gave me an estimate of what they thought it would take. I then used what I thought was the best number for the repair value. I was very upfront with both contractors and told them what I was doing. I also told them that once I found a buyer I would pass the quote on to them so they had a shot at getting the work. They both had no problem with it so it worked out great for me. Now I did have to shoot from the hip when I offered on the property but I was fairly close and the deal still works.

Joshua,

I just started out as well and can tell you that it looks like you have your plan put together well. Now that is coming from a newbie so I am glad to see others posting as well. Keep on trucking and don’t look back. I sat around for about 2 years looking into Wholesaling and finally decided to go for it about two weeks ago. I just signed my first contract two days ago and started marketing it today. One Investor has already been by this afternoon and I am set to meet another one in the morning.

The one thing I can tell you in the very little experience I have is that adjusting your “plan” to your current situation is critical. I like to think of my “Business Plan” as the foundation and that each deal is its own unique situation that you have to build off of your foundation! Good luck and glad to see other newbie’s posting!

Adam,

This is a great question. I am a newbie and was offered a $500 min. finders fee for anything that I brought them that they closed on. The fee would be paid at closing. Depending on the deal the finder’s fee could be negotiated but the min. was $500. Now in my opinion this would be fair if I was presenting deals that are below the $50,000 mark and I did not have an interested investor lined up myself. I would probably want to get a more out of the deal if the house was valued more than that.

My goal is not to become a “bird dog” but to become a wholesaler. However for a newbie this sounds like a win win if the deal is structured so both sides make a profit.